How does NI Configurator 3.1 Instantiate New Block menu get populated?

[crouseb]

NI Configurator is displaying transducer blocks that aren't instantiable in the 'instantiate new block' menu with my device.  Looking at my .cff file, it looks like I have the correct information in section 5.5.2.3 of the common file format spec (FF-103) listing the number of instantiable blocks for each transducer block as zero, but they are still appearing as instantiable within NI Configurator.  How does this list get populated - is Configurator looking at a different area of the DD/.cff to get instantiable block information?  Is there anyway to remove items from the list or cause are error to occur if the user selects an invalid block?

[Vince Shen]

Hi,

The "Instantiate New Block" list in NI-FBUS Configurator displays all the blocks defined in device DD file. Configurator does not update the list dynamically according  to NumOfInstantiableBlock value in CFF file .

NumOfInstantiableBlock parameter is used in block instantiation process. If the value is set to zero, Configurator will not instantiate the corresponding block.

[crouseb]

Vince,
thanks for the explanation, but I have one last question so that I understand how this is working.  If a user were to select a block that can't be instantiated from the menu, does Configurator ignore the selection silently or should I be seeing some sort of error message?

Thanks!

[Vince Shen]

Hi,

There is error message in Status tab of Configurator when block instantiation fails. The message is displayed as follows.

*  Device_ID:FbapVfd : create object...fail Error - NIF_ERR_OTHER - Unknown device error code. (Error Code = -46)

One tip for quickly locating the error message is:

- In Status tab, right click and select Clear, Show Errors Only

- Perform block instantiation action. Then only error message is shown.

I am sorry that I made a mistake in my previous thread. Device CFF file is only used in offline mode. Online device does not use NumOfInstantiableBlocks parameter in CFF file to control block instantiation. Block instantiation is only decided by device itself.